Fifty Fifth Graders

I didn't know what to expect from fifty fifth graders.  I didn't know they were so short.  Didn't know that the boys still wore jean shorts while the girls, for the most part, would've fit in at my high school.  Two other girls and myself took circles into the classroom.  It was my first time working with kids this young, and more drastic: my first time working with boys.

We split the kids into three groups: an all boys group, and two smaller girls groups.  Gabi Lang and Emma Heldman (graduates of the 2007 Young Women's Feminist Leadership Academy) led the girls' groups.  Their responses were typical.  Emma was moved by her girls' understanding of the practices, while Gabi remembered how hard it is for girls to share their writing aloud.  Their soul cards (our way of reflecting anonymously on the time spent in circle; gifts and challenges of the time) were positive.

Here are some of Gabi's, exactly how they appear on the notecard...

"I really liked this activtey it was fun enjoyable.  I liked how I could write what I wanted to write.  Thank you for coming it showed writing in a different way and I loved it.  thank again :)"

"I thought it was great!  I finally feel a lot better about myself and I feel now.  I think I will go to a writing camp this summer.  I feel great about myself and I don't feel a boxed in now.  THANK YOU!!"

"I liked that we did the fast write because it helped me let go of my feelings."

"I liked how it didn't matter what you wrote.  I liked how there was a poem to get us started.  I liked how it was confidental."

Certainly this is positive feedback, and a testament to the process.  My experience was a little different.  All the boys wrote about how they pass time.  Almost all of them mentioned basketball and a window.  Every one of them turned to me when it was their turn to read.  They loved giving each other read back lines.  However, one of my soul cards was a little strange:  "I imagine I'm in a movie with powers."

While that's not exactly a gift or a challenge of the time we spent together, the card made me smile.  It doesn't matter what kind of feedback this boy gave.  He shared, and what he wrote on that card was probably the most honest thing he'd written all day.  And that's what our work is about.